Vanessa Butterflies - The Ladies

Each spring I try once again to find and identify our local butterflies. Trying more to make some sense of this large subject. The genus Vanessa is always a challenge, as the 3 species we see in California are quite similar.

Brush-footed Butterflies, family Nymphalidae, are a large and diverse group, comprising 6,000+ species world-wide. The "True Brush-footed Butterflies" are in the subfamily Nymphalinae, which includes local favorites such as the Common Buckeye, Morning Cloak, and the "Ladies" featured here.

In Bob Stewart' s "Common Butterflies of California" you'll find 3 similar "lady" butterflies in the genus  Vanessa : Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), American Lady (V. virginiensis), and West Coast Lady (V. annabella). Bob's descriptions tell all you need to separate the 3 look-alikes.

Painted Lady, sometimes called American Painted Lady

Last week at Las Gallinas I watched a Painted Lady (above) visit the many wild radish blossoms. All 3 "Lady" species have a row of 4 spots near the trailing edge of the upper hind wing.  In the Painted Lady ( V. cardui ) all 4 spots are black, while in  the American Lady below  two  of these spots have blue centers. In the West Coast Lady (no photo)  all 4 spots have blue centers. 

American Lady - Note the white spot in one of the orange rectangles of the forewing.

The small white spot in one the orange patches on the forewing is seen only in the American Lady. You'll have to get Bob's book to learn all the details.

The underwing view is often diagnostic  Here the American Lady would shows 2 large "eye spots". In the Painted Lady below we see 4 eyespots, all with colored centers.

Painted Lady - underside of hindwing , showing 4 colored spots.

We learn in Shapiro and Manolis' Field Guide to Butterflies of the SF Bay and Sacramento Valley regions that these features can be variable. Unfortunately my ability to remember the differences is even more variable, but that's why he have these excellent guidebooks.

The vanessa's are often migratory, and the Painted Lady the most highly migratory of them all.  "Brush-footed" refers to the very small front legs which are used as sensory organs to "taste" the substrate, rather than to for grasping. These legs are particularly small in "true brush-foots".